i.

part one
:-:-: theme; maps by maroon 5 :-:-:


He kept hitting the cage; again and again. Always sure this time will be the time it breaks. It never does.

All she does is watch him, already resigned to whatever fate awaits them. Maybe if they had like minds, she would also be fighting and crying to be set free. She, however, was nothing like him… Or any of the other children that were confined to these cages, really.

She had died what felt like a second ago, only to wake up in an infant's body. It had been five years since then, and she still felt off. As if she was in a daze, almost. The only time she didn't feel like that was when the scientists forced her to participate in their tests and experiments. During those moments, she was always wide awake and alert.

A long time ago, her new parents had abandoned her and her new twin brother to a strange facility. She still didn't understand their end goal, but so far, she knew that they were experimenting on humans. Children to be exact.

Each child had something special about them, whether it be good or bad would vary depending on the result of the experimentation. Failures looked heavily scarred or disfigured. Successes looked fairly normal, unless their special ability tweaked their features somewhat (talons instead of fingertips, serpent's eyes, gills in the side of their neck…)

"Micah," Her voice was soft and a soothing thing, "You're scaring them."

"I don't care, O!" Came the five-year-old's whine. "I don't wanna do it anymore! Let me out!"

Octavia (a name she had in her last life, and had decided to keep in this one) quietly looked around at the other scared and tired children that surrounded them. They were huddled in the back of their cages, anxiously looking from Micah to the room's entrance.

"You're just going to make things worse. How many times do I have to tell you, Micah?"

The black-haired boy gave one final shove to his cage before screaming in frustration, "It's not fair! I don't like it here! They're mean and scary!" He began to cry, his brown eyes closing as he curled into himself.

"I know… I know." All she could do was watch her brother from across the room, unable to reach out and comfort him like she wanted. Not that she could do much moving anyway; her body was still sore from her last meeting with the scientists. She felt heavy and her chestnut brown hair stuck to her sweaty form.

"It won't be like this forever," She continued. Her green-gray eyes were beginning to grow heavy, and eventually, they finally slipped shut.

"Not for you maybe," Micah replied quietly, his words going unnoticed by the now slumbering Octavia. "You're their favorite…" He sniffed, staring up through the holes in his cage and at the ceiling in the dark room.

All they wanted was to be free. They'd never felt the sun, never seen flowers open. The moon was akin to a myth, as were the stars in the sky. All these children knew were their cages and the white-coated men that tormented them, even in their sleep.


author's note: so this is something i've been working on for awhile. i should be focusing on my other stories, but my writing drive hasn't been the best so i feel like i need to post some new content to get myself going again. this story is gonna start off a little slow in the form of drabbles, but will maybe slowly shift into actual lengthy chapters. the original "prologue" was actually hitting past 10k words, but i decided that was pretty loaded for a "prologue" so i decided to split it up. i'm not sure how big the maximum ride fandom is, but i hope you guys enjoy what i have planned!